Germany: EDEKA North celebrates 25 years of logistics location Malchow

On saturday the 14th of October 2017, the logistics location of the EDEKA North concern celebrated its 25th anniversary. For the company's celebration, a party was organised which was attended by important people from politics and the industry.

During his greeting speech, Carsten Koch, manging director of EDEKA North, explained the main purpose of the logistics location in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Dr Till Backhaus, Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Consumer Protection of the state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, praised the great longtime cooperation between EDEKA North and the state's government and stressed sustainable projects such as Agriculture for Biodiversity.

René Putzar, mayor of Malchow, also mentioned the very good cooperation between the city of Malchow and EDEKA North and the importance of the logisitics location as an employee in the region.

Five former and present executives discussed together with host Marko Vogt, a famous German tv-host, the success story of the location in Malchow on the public stage. Reimer Ohlendorf, former managing director, and Dieter Rehfeldt, former manager at Malchow, discussed how difficult it was to find a suitable logistics location and the first successful steps in the early nineties.

The topics of competitiveness, modernisation and renovation at the location in Malchow that were discussed by Martin Steinmetz, managing director, and Uwe Schmidt, head of logistics, sparked the interest of the public. Afterwards, Norbert Plock, manager at Malchow, talked about why EDEKA is a successful employee and training company.

On 27 October 1992, the 0.85 hectares of storage area of a former carpet factory were turned into the logistics company for EDEKA North. Since then, around 200 EDEKA supermarkets in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are supplied with the help of 80 employees. The location, that used to be rented, was eventually bought and expanded. Today, 13,000 to 15,000 products are picked and sent by almost 400 employees on 3.3 hectares of storage area. EDEKA North has always been one of the biggest employers in Malchow.